Coin-controlled game-element carrier.



R. F. PENDLETON.

COIN GONTROLLED GAME ELEMENT CARRIER.

APPLICATION FILED JAN.13, 1908.

.939 306 Patented Nov. 9, 1909.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

yff

A TTOR/VE VS R. F. PENDLETON. com CONTROLLED GAME ELEMENT CARRIER.

- APPLICATION FILED JAN. 18, 1908.

939,306. Patented NOV. 9, 1909.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

fig,

if if I HI [TS a y fig, INVENTOR:

I I I I I f m I I W A Wok/V516 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ROSCOE r". rE'NDLE'roN, or nonwrort, NEW YORK.

COIN-CONTROLLED GAME-ELEMENT CARRIER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 9, 1909.

Application filed. January 13, 1908. Serial No. 410,619.

but may be released for use under certain prescribed conditions.

The invention comprises a support for the game element with a lock for the same which may be released by an inserted coin of proper value or other suitable means, which, when inserted, becomes the intermediary through which the lock is operated. The locking mechanism for the game element controls one terminal of an electric circuit and the other terminal of the circuit is so arranged that the lock, when moved toward the position to release the game element, will cause the closing of the electric circuit and thus set into operation a buzzer or other audible signal which will remain in operation until the game element is again replaced in position and locked.

The invention is aimed more particularly to provide a means for supporting and locking the ball rack used in the game known as pool, and since this rack is used only at the commencement of a game for the initial bunching of the balls upon the table, it can be replaced upon the support as soon as the balls have been properly bunched ready for the game. For this reason 'an audible signal is provided to give notice that a game is about to be played and this signal remains in operation until the rack is replaced and locked, which, because of the annoyance or obtrusiveness of the signal, will be done as soon as the player has bunched the balls so as to stop such signal.

The invention will be fully understood from the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a front elevation, partly in section and partly broken away, of the normally locked game element carriers; Fig. 2 is a vertical section, partly in elevation, of the same, taken from the front to the rear,

and Fig. 3 is a detail plan view of that portion of the lock with which the unlocking means directly coacts.

Referring to the drawings, there is shown a board or panel 1 arranged to be secured in any suitable manner upon a side wall. Secured to this board or panel is a cabinet structure 2 consisting essentially of a rectangular box and divided into an upper compartment 3 and a lower compartment 4 by a horizontal partition 5. The lower com partment is mainly occupied by a coin receptacle 6 mounted upon suitable brackets 7 or otherwise to leave a certain amount of space below it. Through the partition 5 there is provided a slot 8 for the passage of a coin, as will hereinafter appear, which coin will strike an inclined deflector 9 which will throw it into the middle of the receptacle 6. The front of the cabinet or casing 2 may be removable in any desired way so as to provide for the inspection or repair of the mechanism contained therein and for the occasional removal of the coin box 6.

Upon the partition 5 there is arranged a sliding bar 10 held to the partition by screws 11 passing through slots 12 in said bar. A stem 13 is provided on one end of the bar and this stem is surrounded by a helical spring 14 confined between the end of the bar and the side of the casing, and this spring tends to move the bar 10 toward the other end of the casing. The bar 10, at the end remote from that engaged by the spring let, is formed into a head 15 having an inclined or beveled face 16 and somewhat removed from the head the bar 19 is provided with a laterally;extending lug 17 expanded both above and below the surface of the bar and provided with a longitudinal groove 18 to receive the edge of a coin, as will hereinafter appear.

Arranged to move in a direction perpendicular to the plane of movement of the bar 10 is the head 19 of an arm 20 rising from one end of a rock shaft 21, and this head extends through a slot 22 in the partition 5 and rises above the same into the compartment 3, the main body ofthe arm 20 and also the rock shaft 21 being contained in the compartment 1. That portion of the head 19 facing the beveled end 15 of the bar 10 is provided with a beveled lug 23 adapted to be engaged by the beveled face of the bar 10, and at a distance from this beveled lug 23 the head 19 is provided with a beveled tooth 24,- while at the other side of the lug 23 the, head 19 is provided with a longitudinal groove 25. The groove 18 in the lug 17 on the bar 10 and the groove 25 in the head 19. normally lie in different planes with relation to the longitudinal plane of movement of the bar 10, and extending downward from the top of the casing so as to overhang the two grooves 18 and 25 is a coin chute 26 fast at its upper end on a plate 27 secured to the top of the casing 2.

Referring now again to the rock shaft 21, it will be observed that at each end it is provided with a pintle or journal 28 adapted to a journal bearing 29 fast on the bot tom of the casing 2 within the chamber 4. This rock shaft 21 is shown as square in cross section and is engaged by the free end of a leaf spring 30 fast at its other end on the bottom of the casing 2. This rock shaft therefore, when it is turned in its bearings, must be turned against the action of the spring 30 until one of the corners of the shaft has passed the vertical diametric plane of the shaft, when the shaft will be caused by the reaction of the spring to snap over and be held or temporarily locked in the new position, the shaft having moved through an arc of ninety degrees. On the end of the shaft 21 remote from that carrying the arm 20 is another arm 31 extending directly downward through a suitable slot 32 in the bottom of the casing 2 but at a considerable distance from the panel or backboard 1. The slot 32 is of suflicient length to permit the arm 31 to move toward the front around the axis of the shaft 21 until it assumes the horizontal position because of the square shape of the shaft, and, consequently, this slot extends through the front of the casing, as indicated by dotted lines at 33 in Fig. 2.

Suitably secured in a bracket 34 fast on the panel or backboard 1 at a point considerably below the base of the casing 2 is an arm 35 projecting outward from the panel or baseboard in an approximately horizontal plane. The horizontal arm 35 serves as a support for a ball rack 41, the upper end only of which is shown in the drawings, and when in normal position the arm 31 depending from the rock-shaft 21 is close to and just above the front end of the arm 35 and serves to prevent the removal of the rack 41 from this arm 35.

Located within the compartment 3 of the casing 2 there is an electrically operated buzzer 43, or other electrically operated signal device, and this buzzer is included in the circuit of a battery 44, one side'of which is connected by a conductor 45 directly to one of the binding posts of the buzzer, and the other side of the battery is connected by a conductor 46 to a spring arm 36 in the path of the head 19 of the arm 20. The other binding post of the buzzer is connected by a conductor 47 to a screw 37 in the path of the spring arm 36. Now, let it be supposed that an attempt is made to move the arm 31 in a direction to unlock the rack 41 from its supporting arm 35. The tooth 24 on the head '19 will engage with the head 15 on the bar 10 and further movement of the arm 31 is prevented, and this movement of the head 19 to permit the engagement of the tooth 24 with the head 15 is so small that the lower end of the arm 31 still remains above the outer end of the arm 35. The screw or terminal 37 may, however, be so located as to make contact with the spring 36, and thus close the buzzer circuit and thereby give audible notice of the attempt to remove the rack 41. Suppose, however, that a coin of proper denomination has been dropped through the coin conduit 26, it will fall into the grooves 18 and 25, being held againstescape therefrom because these grooves terminate before reaching either the bottom of the lug 17 or the bottom of the head 19. The coin is indicated in the position it assumes when first dropped through the conduit by the dotted lines at 48. Now, when the arm 31 is grasped and pulled toward the front, the head 19 will move toward the rear and thus bring the coin from the inclined position shown in Fig. 3 to the alined position indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 3. This will cause a movement of the bar 10 against the action of the spring 14 to a sufficient extent to permit the tooth 24 to pass the head 15, and, consequently the head 19 has become unlocked from the head 15 and the arm 31 may be moved to a horizontal position bringing the arm 20 also to a horizontal position and the coin will be allowed to drop through the slot 8 into the coin box 6. This frees the arm 35 from the arm 31 and the ball rack 41 may be removed and used in the usual manner. But on the movement of the arm 20 the head 19 has released the spring arm 36, which moves into contact with the terminal 37 and thereby completes the circuit from the battery 44 to the buzzer 43 and the latter begins to hum and it keeps on humming or buzzing so long as the arm 20 remains in the unlocked position. This buzzer gives audible notice that the rack has been removed from its support and is being Now, when the arm 31 is moved in a direction to release the rack the arm 49 is caused to move downward and outward engaging the rack and pushing it off from its support 35 and finally occupying the same position that the arm 31 formerly occupied, which arm 31 is now in a horizontal position, as indicated by dotted lines. When the player replaces the ball rack the arm 49 is en aged thereby and pushed rearwardly and upwardly toward its initial position and before the ball rack has reached its rearmost position on the support 35 the spring controlling the rock-shaft 21 will cause the latter to snap back into its original position, moving the arm 31 into locking relation with the support for the rack. It will thus be seen that when the rack is once replaced it cannot again be removed until another proper com has been inserted through the coin slot. 7

The invention is not limited to the particular coin lock shown and described, and other means may be used for locking in. position the arms 31 and 49.

hat is claimed is 1. A game element carrier comprising a projecting support for the game element from which the latter may hang pendently, a rock shaft and a support therefor above the game element support, two arms of equal length fast on the shaft and disposed at right angles one to the other, one arm being in the path of removal of the game element when on the support and the other arm being in the path of the movement of the game element onto the support and each arm hav-' iug its free end when in operative relation to the support adjacent to the free end of the latter, another arm fast on the shaft and carrying one element of a lock, and another lock member co-acting with the first lock member to lock the rock shaft with one of the arms in operative relation to the game element support.

2. A game element carrier comprising a support for the game element, a rock shaft and a support therefor above the game ele ment support, two rock arms of equal length fast .on the shaft, one arm being in the path of removal of the game element when on the support and the other arm being in the path of movement of the game element onto the support and each arm having its free end when in operative relation to the support adjacent to the free end of the latter, and another rock arm on the shaft provided with a stop or tooth constituting one member of a lock, and a spring-controlled sliding bar normally in the path of the toothed end of the third rock arm and constituting the other member of the lock, the rock arm provided with the lock member having a limited range of movement with reference to the other lock member without disengaging therefrom.

3. A game element carrier comprising a support for the game element and adapted to project horizontally and to carry the game element pendently, a rock shaft and support therefor above the game element support, a rock arm on the shaft normally in the path of removal of the game element from its support, another'arm on the rock shaft and movable therewith into operative relation to the support for the game element as the first arm moves out of the path of the game element, both rock arms being of such length as to have their free ends in operative relation with the free end of the support when moved to active position, a third rock arm on the shaft and movable therewith and with the other rock arms, a latch member normally in but movable out of the path of the third rock arm, the said third rock arm having a limited range of movement without disengaging from the latch member, a spring engaging the rock shaft for constraining said shaft to remain in either limit of its movement about its axis of rotation, an electric signal circuit, and circuit terminals one of which is engaged by the third rock arm when moved to the locked position, the circuit terminals being held apart by the third rock arm during its limited range of movement while in the locked position.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own, I have hereto afliXed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

ROSCOE F. PENDLETON.

Witnesses J. J. BIXBY, ERNEST J. PIOKENS. 

